Indie fantasy authors to watch: DANIEL ARENSON

Daniel Arenson is an author living in Canada. He is best known for his "Song of Dragons" fantasy series and his novel "Eye of the Wizard". He chatted to me about obsessions, inspirational fantasy art … and dragons.

ON THE PAST

Was there one book that made you want to be a writer?

Probably "Dragons of Winter Twilight", the first fantasy novel I read. I was eleven years old. I started writing fantasy stories after reading that one.

"Writing to the Point" by Algis Budrys was a huge influence as well.

Was writing a planned career, or are you a writer despite what you were told?

I write because I can't stop. More than a career, it's an obsession.

What has it cost to get to where you are today (money, time, opportunities)?

Time. I have many ideas for books, and only so much time to write them all. The main challenge in my career has been finding time to write all these novels!

ON WRITING

How do you manage to live 'in this world' and in 'the other world' you're creating?

"This… world….?"

How long does it take to produce something like Blood of Requiem?

I write quickly, but I spend a lot of time editing. A book like "Blood of Requiem" takes about 100 hours to write, but might take 300 hours (or more) to polish. Then it goes off to my beta readers and my editor.

ON FANTASY

Dragons. They used to be the enemy; now their incredibly cool. What's your take, and how do you make a myth come to life?

In "Song of Dragons", I wanted to give dragons a new twist. Instead of classic dragons, I wrote about humans who can turn into dragons at will. There are many stories about werewolves, but I've never heard of weredragons before, and I wanted to tell their story. They are definitely the good guys in "Song of Dragons"; the villains are the humans who demonize and hunt them.

Series or standalone: you've done both. Which do you prefer writing, and which is more popular?

I began writing standalones when I was published at Five Star Publishing. It's a bit tougher to write a series when you're dealing with publishing contracts; you don't know if the first book would be a success, if your publisher would buy the second, etc.

When Kindle became popular, I began writing "Song of Dragons", a fantasy series. I don't have to worry about the realities of print publishing anymore. Writing a series is great; it lets me create more complex story arcs. After I release the third "Song of Dragons" novel, I plan to write a sequel to my standalone novel "Eye of the Wizard", and turn that into a series too.

ON PUBLISHING

You're currently riding the wave of the ebook bestseller lists. Can you outline your progress?

To be fair, I'm not on the general ebook bestsellers lists, but I do appear on the Epic Fantasy lists. There's really no secret handshake. I didn't promote my books in any unusual way. I simply try to keep improving with every book, and keep writing new epic fantasy stories that readers will enjoy.

How much promotion work was required to get there?

I used to promote a lot — I'd spend hours on Facebook, Twitter, Kindleboards, and other places. But I quickly realized that this was taking away too much writing time. Today, I'm still active on Facebook, but I try to spend most of my time writing new books instead of promoting the old ones.

You have some really professional covers. How did you select the designs, and do you have cover artists you can recommend?

I'm a big fan of fantasy art. Growing up, my heroes were fantasy artists such as Larry Elmore, Fred Fields, Jeff Easley, Brom, Brian Froud, and many others. I started writing fantasy because I wanted to invent stories that "feel" like that kind of artwork. To me, a great piece of art isn't just a pretty image; it tells an entire story.

I still enjoy browsing websites such as DeviantArt and discovering new talent. I found my current artists simply by browsing artwork websites.

ON THE FUTURE

How far away is full-time writing for you, and would you choose to write full time?

I do have a "real" job too (I'm a software developer), but most of my income currently comes from ebooks. In the future, I might choose to scale back software development until I write full time, but we'll see.

What's next for Daniel Arenson?

This winter, I plan to release "Light of Requiem", the third "Song of Dragons" novel. Keep an eye out for it! After that, I plan to write a sequel for "Eye of the Wizard", and then possibly a fourth "Song of Dragons" novel.

Thanks, Daniel for taking the time to offer some insight into your writing success!

READ A SAMPLE

Support an indie fantasy author by visiting Daniel's website.

or help his dragons rule the roost on Amazon Kindle by checking out his latest titles below